Happy Halloween! We hope you are getting only treats today and no tricks. But in keeping with the holiday spirit, today’s post highlights some unintended tricks employers may face from Halloween.

Many employers will have already hosted a Halloween office party or allowed employees to dress up today to celebrate, but the Halloween festivities, whether work-sponsored or not, can continue to haunt employers long after today. Below are several examples of problems employers encountered because of Halloween activities: read more…

Many people enjoy spouting off what they view as 140-character tidbits of wisdom on the social media platform Twitter. But recently several individuals have found themselves in trouble with their employers (read: former employers) for their tweets or other social media posts.

One recent example was a loan officer from Michigan who crafted a racist tweet, not worth repeating here, following First Lady Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention. Twitter users saw the tweet and tracked down the home loan company the woman worked for. The result was a flood of tweets directed to the company’s Twitter profile calling their attention to the tweet and asking if the employee’s views represented the company’s values.

Newly leaked e-mails reveal that pop sensation Ariana Grande lost a gig performing at the White House based on a video circulated online last year. The surveillance footage taken at a California doughnut shop showed Grande licking a tray of doughnuts and saying, “I hate America.” The footage was later picked up by TMZ and circulated across social media, creating a firestorm of controversy and criticism against the former Nickelodeon star. A White House staffer tasked with vetting Grande for the job responded to her request to perform with a resounding “Nope” upon learning of her extracurricular activities.

In refusing to allow Grande to perform, the White House joined the ranks of organizations that vet potential hires by checking applicants’ social media content. According to a 2014 survey from CareerBuilder, forty-three percent of employers use social networking sites to research job candidates. Of those, 51 percent reported that they refused to hire a candidate based on content found on social media. Forty-five percent of employers also use search engines such as Google to research potential job candidates.

Just this month, two large jury awards were given to celebrities in their respective civil suits alleging amongst other things, invasion of privacy:

First, FOX sportscaster Erin Andrews was awarded $55 million in her lawsuit against a Nashville hotel and stalker after she was secretly videotaped in her hotel room in 2008. The jury found that the hotel chain was 49 percent at fault and held them liable for approximately $27 million.

Then last week, Terry Bollea, known publicly as Hulk Hogan, was awarded $115 million in damages in his invasion of privacy case against Gawker.com over its publication of a sex tape involving Hogan. The Florida jury’s award consisted of $55 million for economic harm and $60 million for emotional distress and doesn’t even include punitive damages, which will have to be established separately.

Although the respective defendants in these two cases still have the opportunity to appeal, the fact remains that these huge awards demonstrate the juries’–and likely the overall public’s–disgust with invasion of privacy. Of course, the salacious nature of these videos, which involve the most intrusive and intimate aspects of an individual’s life, surely contributed to the results. That being said, everyone, including employers, should note the importance individuals place on their own privacy and ensure that one does not unjustly intrude on someone else’s sacred private space.